Christian Horner admitted to being sceptical about Nico Rosberg's pole lap in Hungary after the Mercedes driver went quickest despite the presence of double-waved yellows.
Fernando Alonso's spin at Turn 9 in the closing moments of Q3 put paid to the laps of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo behind, but Rosberg, arriving later, seemed to gain time as the McLaren was wheeled away from the circuit. The championship leader went on to pip teammate Hamilton to pole but immediately afterwards Red Bull boss Horner was confused about how the German went quicker.
Horner told Sky Sports F1: "One thing I couldn't understand which I need to check is Rosberg was behind Daniel, and managed to get a purple middle sector. I don't know if they had it cleared by the time he got there...."
He was then told he had lifted, and Horner laughed to himself and said: "With that sort of laptime? That's down to the stewards to decide."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the team's data proved the championship leader lifted sufficiently at the crucial moment.
"[Rosberg] had a big lift into the yellow zone, lost quite some time," he told Sky. "But then at the end the yellow zone was gone. It should be OK from our data."